Content:

Set in a world after a nuclear holocaust, Allen Purcell finds himself living in a society with a strict moral codex, observed by mechanical spy drones and enforced by what is practically a huge media network instead of a government.

In my point of view, this novel (which may, according to the publiher Vintage Books, be filed under "practical joke") is one of Dick's turns against media as manipulator of the masses.

In "The Man Who Japed", Dick explains in detail how "agencies" are developing a basic storyline, which is then hammered home through the different channels. Dick talks about multiplicators, pretty much as 21st century advertising agencies would.

The protagonist Purcell (a name to reappear in "dr. Bloodmoney as that of a secretary, by the way) turns this system against itself, which may be interpreted as the hope that if media can make the public believe weird stuff, it could be used to make them believe good stuff, as well.

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